Vinnie Vincent Embraces the ‘Mystique’ of Gender Identity Questions

Former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent has declined to directly answer questions about his gender identity, saying he instead prefers to maintain a level of "mystique."

The comments appear to be another example of the formerly reclusive musician using his return to the public eye to exert control over the "events" that he'd said had kept him out of the spotlight for nearly 20 years.

With rumors about his personal life escalating in recent years, Vincent was asked in a new interview if he was living life as a woman. “Not that I know of," he told the Noize in the Attic podcast. "I don’t know where they came up with this stuff. … But see, if I address that, then the mystique is gone. See, everybody loves the mystique. I think they love the mystique because they don’t know. So maybe I’ll say, ‘I’ll let you guys decide’ … then everyone is still talking.”

He did acknowledge that he was “mistaken all the time for something else.” "But what can I do?" he asked. "You correct ‘em and they go, ‘I don’t understand.’ … Then I won’t correct you. So maybe it goes that way.”

You can listen to the interview below.

Vincent – who recently took part in one of Gene Simmons’ Vault launch events – said last month that he would provide “the in-depth answers to everything” in the memoir he was planning to complete within the next year. He noted that the book would be an “uncomfortable” experience but that fans would want to read it more than once.

“The fans deserve to know, and I deserve to tell it," he explained. "And it's nice to be back, but you can only be back [if] … The meaning of being back, the reason and the meaningfulness of being back can only depend on the resolve of the past … That book is my resolve.”

Vincent was a member of Kiss from 1982 to 1984, writing and performing on both their creative (Creatures of the Night) and commercial (Lick it Up) comeback albums.